Chapter 305 - 298: It’s Over
Chapter 305: Chapter 298: It’s Over
The storm that shook the entire plane lasted for a full day and night.
The raging elemental turbulence barely subsided by dusk the following day.
But the sky was no longer its original color.
The sky in the far west looked as if it had been doused in a bucket of thick ink. A deep, blackish-purple stubbornly clung to it, forming a stark dividing line with the surrounding scorched-yellow clouds, like a massive, unhealing scar.
The air was filled with an unknown, putrid odor.
The balance of Magic Power across the entire plane was temporarily disrupted, and it took three days to precariously stabilize.
This had a devastating effect on Allen’s work.
Inside his private workshop, as Allen performed the final Rune link for the core materials of the fourth Earth Vein Magic Furnace, a trivial external Magic Power fluctuation unbalanced the internal energy structure. The materials let out a muffled whine, then crumbled into a pile of expensive slag.
Scrapped again.
Allen stared blankly at the pile of waste, feeling utterly unfazed—he almost wanted to laugh.
’Compared to my Master’s power, which can level mountains and vaporize the earth on a whim, this little loss is nothing.’
He ordered Jarvis.
"Extend the pre-processing time for all materials by thirty percent, and add three more anti-interference stabilization Force Fields to the workshop."
"Command confirmed. Commander, would you like to connect to Victor Iron Flame’s comms? He has initiated seven requests in the last hour."
"Patch him in."
A screen of light appeared, showing Victor’s face etched with anxiety. Even his normally impeccably-groomed golden hair had a few strands sticking out of place.
"Allen! How are things on your end? The fortress is still unreachable! All official communication channels are silent!"
"Same here," Allen replied succinctly, continuing to clean up the mess in front of him.
"It’s been three days!" Victor paced back and forth on the other side of the screen. "Did Master Mercer win or not? Even if he won, no news for this long... Could something have gone wrong?"
His concerns were justified.
A Morning Star Wizard was their anchor. If something happened to Mercer, small fry like them, who had just survived the Beast Tide, would likely be doomed.
"Calm down."
Allen didn’t even look up. "Worrying won’t help. Just focus on the work in front of you."
"I can’t sit still. I haven’t gotten anything done for two days," Victor said with a wry laugh. "Just waiting for news."
Allen’s hands stilled, and he glanced up at him.
"If you can’t handle it, just let the Mechanical Mind boost your IQ for you."
Victor’s so-called family secret for resisting the encroachment of the Mechanical Mind was, in reality, just a method to halt the operation of the permanent, passive Witchcraft. Allen had to pester him several times before Victor finally admitted it.
"That’s none of your business! Just get to the point. Did our Master win or not?"
"Of course he won," Allen said nonchalantly.
"Really? How do you know?" Victor’s face lit up.
"A hunch."
The comms link cut out abruptly.
Allen chuckled. Teasing his friend was one of the few pleasures he had these days.
He returned to his tedious, meticulous work.
What he didn’t tell Victor was that just yesterday, he’d used Jarvis to monitor several public channels for low-level Wizards and had picked up on some fragmented rumors.
The contents of the rumors were horrifying.
—"The energy shields of Forged Fire Fortress were completely torn apart during the battle..."
—"I heard Master Mercer’s Giant Divine Soldier had half its body corroded by abyssal energy. They say it’s still stuck in the material plane, unable to return to the Half-plane Workshop..."
—"And the Son of the Abyss... Apparently, Master Mercer used some kind of weapon to completely obliterate him, body and soul..."
Piecing these fragmented pieces of information together pointed to one result: a pyrrhic victory.
Master Mercer had won, but it had been anything but an easy victory. He had paid a tremendous price.
「Two more days passed.」
Allen’s eyes were bloodshot, his Spiritual Power highly focused.
"Jarvis, the final three spatial anchoring Runes. Begin synchronous simulation."
"Calculating... Node deviation rate at 0.01%, within safety thresholds. Ambient Magic Power is stable."
Allen took a deep breath. The immense Spiritual Power of a Second-level Wizard flowed out of him like mercury, enveloping everything.
"First."
Ripples spread across the material’s surface, but they stabilized.
"Second."
The surrounding elemental particles began to riot. Allen’s brow twitched, and his Spiritual Power slammed down like a sledgehammer, forcibly crushing the raging particles back into submission.
"Third... Complete!"
HUMMM—
The entire Magic Furnace let out a low, resonant hum. Ninety-one Rune Arrays linked together, end to end, forming a perfect closed loop.
"Congratulations, Commander. The core component for the first Earth Vein Magic Furnace is complete. Assembly will be finished in an estimated five days, at which point it can be calibrated and brought online."
’Success.’
’All that hard work wasn’t for nothing. Now I can finally use Magic Power without restraint.’
At that exact moment, the fortress’s all-band broadcast, which had been silent for seven days, suddenly came to life.
A top-priority communication forcibly patched through.
A screen of light materialized in the center of the workshop.
The figure of Mercer Iron Star appeared.
He was still dressed in his dark gray, liquid-metal robe. His silver hair cascaded like a waterfall, and his crystalline, deep blue eyes showed no emotion.
The background was the command hall, familiar to Allen. Everything looked exactly as it had before the war.
As if that world-destroying divine battle had been nothing more than an illusion.
"This is a realm-wide announcement."
Mercer’s voice was as cold and hard as clashing steel, but his cadence was a fraction slower than usual.
"Lysander, the Son of the Abyss, is confirmed to be utterly annihilated."
"The remnants of the Black Wizards who infiltrated this plane have been purged."
"All organized threats within the plane have been eliminated."
Just a few simple sentences. He didn’t mention the brutality of the battle, the damage to the Giant Divine Soldier, nor the supposed feud between brothers.
The victor has the final say, and he didn’t need to explain himself to anyone.
"Sector commanders, your orders." Mercer’s gaze seemed to pierce the screen, sweeping over every survivor.
"Effective immediately, begin a full-scale purge of all remaining aberrant Magical Beasts within your territories."
"Repair your defensive lines. Resume production in the mining sectors."
"In one month, I expect the first shipment of mineral resources to arrive at the fortress."
The communication was cut just as abruptly.
Silence returned to the workshop, broken only by the soft hum of the Earth Vein Magic Furnace.
Allen stood up, walked to the workshop window, and pushed open the heavy blast-proof armor plate.
The sky outside was still dim, but the suffocating, oppressive feeling had vanished completely.
’It’s over.’
The storm of death that had swept across the plane had finally subsided.
Allen gazed at the sprawling ruins in the distance, his eyes gradually sharpening.
’The crisis may be over, but my journey is just beginning.’
His current situation, having just advanced to Second-level Wizard, was rather awkward.
He possessed the Spiritual Power reserves of a Second-level Wizard, but lacked a corresponding Core Witchcraft, not to mention the specific knowledge needed to construct a personal dimension.
He was like a man holding the key to a vault, but with no idea how to open the door.
"Jarvis, prepare a formal request. I need to take a trip to Forged Fire Fortress."
’I need to see my Master.’
On one hand, he needed to ask for guidance on the path of a Second-level Wizard. Personal instruction from a Morning Star Wizard was of immeasurable value.
On the other hand, and more importantly, there was the matter of his half-plane fragment.
’That thing is still sitting in my Master’s exchange inventory.’
His Master had given him a twenty-percent discount and reserved it for him, but he still had to pay for it with Magic Stones in the end.
’I might be flat broke right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go and feast my eyes on it.’